Diablo 4 players criticize “weird and pointless” damage types

Diablo 4 players are criticizing action role-playing game’s “weird and pointless” damage and elemental damage types.

No matter the class, Diablo 4’s heroes can inflict damage on their monstrous foes in a wide variety of ways. Basic physical damage from crossbows, swords, and blunt instruments can only do so much harm.

Thus, elemental effects – fire, cold, lightning, poison, and shadow – often come in handy. The system does not work as simply as it may seem, though.

For instance, inflicting cold damage on an enemy chills them but doesn’t freeze right away. According to some Diablo 4 players, the minutiae of it all feels pointless at best.

Diablo 4 fans call the damage and elemental types pointless

“Everything about damage types and elemental damage seems weird and pointless,” reads the title of a Reddit thread from a frustrated Diablo player.

The Redditor goes on to state that damage types seem to have been designed “with no logic,” before questioning why none of the game’s weapons feature elemental effects.

“Enemies do not possess any elemental strengths or weaknesses, further diminishing the significance of elemental damage,” the players added further in their post.

Even how some of the status effects are categorized warrant scrutiny, the player continued. “Many skills have thematic elements, but these elements don’t correspond to actual elemental damage.”

Wind and earth spells are cited as examples since Diablo 4 designates both as physical damage instead of elemental. But, as the Redditor points out, lightning confusingly receives the elemental label.

Blizzard Entertainment

The Redditor ended their long post, in part, with the following: “It just feels like this game got completely lost on what elements are and why games have them.”

Several people who commented in the thread tend to agree with this argument. One person said the game feels as if every in-game system was built by “different committe[s]” that never communicated. A few others chimed in with similar statements.

“On top of all that, I miss being able to be fire whirlwind, lightning earthquake, or ice seismic slam on my barbarian,” someone else replied. “It feels like all the ‘flavors’ of skill expression were taken out.”

It’s possible Blizzard will introduce changes in this regard when rolling out future updates and seasonal content. The wait for such adjustments, should they ever come, could be long, though.

For now, players are looking forward to learning more about Diablo 4 Season 1, which is expected to release in the coming weeks.